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| F1 Malaysia |
“Fantastic job. In the heat we kept our heads cool. Thank you,” Vettel praised his Red Bull team after his second win of the season.
Tyres maketh the man in Malaysia, and it was Vettel who was able to preserve his best, helped to victory after Nick Heidfeld made a strong start to put his Renault in second place.
Heidfeld’s great start but lack of race pace saw him hold up Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Vitaly Petrov and Fernando Alonso all joining a train, allowing Vettel to gain would what be a race-winning advantage.
Webber down the field was forced to tussle with the bravado of Kamui Kobayashi as the pair traded ninth place. Webber was the first to blink, pitting on lap 10, pointing to a four-stop strategy for the Australian.
The first wave of stops for the rest of the field soon came, with the loser from the stops being Ferrari’s Felipe Massa who had a slow stop with a sticking front left, eventually emerging behind Webber. Nick Heidfeld also lost track position to rejoin in fifth after his strong start.
Webber’s early stop and good pace saw him move to sixth once Kobayashi pitted from third. The Japanese driver was not to see the front of the race again, finishing eighth for his Sauber team.
At the front, Hamilton was now second behind Vettel and pushing hard, cutting Vettel’s lead. However, Vettel was never under real pressure as before Hamilton could really apply the screws to the Red Bull, his McLaren’s pace dropped as he struggled on his tyres.
Meanwhile, Felipe Massa’s Ferrari was catching Webber, and by lap 22 was fimly on Webber’s gearbox. Massa grabbed Webber into the final corners of the lap, and Webber promptly pitted.
Another flurry of pitstops saw the front of the race change before Vettel again emerged in the lead, but his rivals had renewed hope after it was revealed that Vettel’s KERS unit was also faulty. Vettel admitted later that it was working intermittently, pointing towards overheating issues that troubled Red Bull in Melbourne, costing a few tenths of a second per lap.
However, in truth, it appeared not to trouble the German, as the chasing pack continued to find problems.
Alonso and Hamilton fought for third place, but as Alonso looked to pass the British driver he clipped Hamilton’s rear wheel, breaking sections of his front wing off and forcing a pit stop. The stewards summoned the pair post race, although it seems clear Alonso was totally at fault.
Alonso said later: “Unfortunately we touched and I broke my front wing and we had to pit again. It cost me maybe a podium today but we will try again in China.”
Meanwhile, once the third round of pit stops had shaken out, Vettel was safely in first, with Jensen Button finding pace to secure second for McLaren with a pit stop jump of Hamilton.
The concluding stages of the race saw a tight battle between Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber for fourth, and Nick Heidfeld and Webber for third.
Hamilton’s pace was compromised by his tyres falling away, and Webber’s superior grip saw him take Hamilton in a clean move through turns one and two. Petrov then showed just how much tyres played a role in the race, easily moving past Hamilton, forcing McLaren to pit him for an unscheduled fourth stop.
Hamilton rued the circumstances, later saying: “Through the race I think my tyres went off. We boxed [pitted] too early then we had to box earlier [again]. All the time we were boxing before everyone. I did everything I could to keep up.”
As Webber caught Heidfeld in the last laps of the race, the Australian was unable to find a way past Heidfeld before the chequered flag, but could take solace in a hard-won driving performance to resurrect his race after his KERS troubles.
In the final laps, Vitaly Petrov ran wide onto the grass and moved too quickly back onto the racing line, launching his car off a bump and into the air in an alarming crash which completely broke his steering wheel mounting off into his hands.
Sources: http://www.theroar.com.au
